Workers Educational Association (Hansard, 30 January 1991)

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) how he intends to monitor local authority support for the Workers Educational Association; and what steps he is taking to ensure adequate grant for the Workers Educational Association's programme;
(2) what steps he is taking to ensure that changes in the financing of the Workers Educational Association will not adversely affect the organisation's activities.

§ Mr. Eggar
Under the arrangements for education support grant, local education authorities are expected to report to the Department on each activity for which they receive grant. Authorities have been asked to provide a short progress report on the WEA ESG to the Department by 31 March 1991. The working party of officials, which was established to consider the funding of the WEA during the transitional period, will take account of those reports in making further recommendations.
The Government have not reduced overall support for the WEA; provision is being transferred to local education authorities. We shall undertake a review during the third year of the transitional period to assess how authorities are carrying out their new responsibility for the WEA.

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if the new funding arrangements for the Workers Educational Association will take into account the increased administrative resource impact on district Workers Educational Associations; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Eggar
In several WEA districts, district secretaries already have formal or informal arrangements for liaising with their local education authorities. The new sytem of funding the WEA provides district secretaries with the opportunity to build on those arrangements. In addition, the Department's grant to the national association will now include specific provision for the costs of the 507W employment of district secretaries and basic administrative support. This central support will continue when responsibility for funding the districts is fully transferred to local education authorities.

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his policy on the role of the Workers Educational Association in providing adult education in the 1990s; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Eggar
The WEA is the main voluntary sector provider of adult education at local level, and I would not expect that to change. The Government wish to encourage local education authorities to take account of WEA provision within their strategic plans for further education, including adult education. Greater collaboration should enable a more effective response to local needs.